Union Petitions to Represent Adjuncts

The State Employees’ Association last week petitioned regulators for the right to represent adjunct faculty at New Hampshire’s community colleges.

Brad Asbury, director of organizing at the SEA, declined to say how many part-time instructors had signed a union authorization card. He said the union did not yet know how many faculty members would be considered eligible for the proposed bargaining unit. In its petition, the union described the unit as “all eligible adjunct faculty” and said the category included 600 workers. Full-time faculty members and staff at the community colleges are already represented by the SEA.

The Community College System of New Hampshire opposes the composition of the proposed unit. Spokeswoman Shannon Reid said the union failed to include “any specificity about what they propose to mean by the word ‘eligible.’ “

The community college system is required to submit a list of eligible employees today to the Public Employee Labor Relations Board, and Reid said yesterday that officials were still compiling the list. But she said system officials believe the number of adjunct faculty members is well over 600.

If the labor relations board finds 30 percent of adjuncts have signed an authorization card, the union can ask the board to conduct a formal election in which adjuncts can vote by secret ballot on unionizing. If more than 50 percent of adjuncts have signed, the labor board can authorize the union to represent the adjuncts without further voting. Asbury said the union believes it has the signatures of at least 30 percent of adjuncts and may have the signatures of more than half.

The labor relations board may finish comparing the authorization cards with the list of adjuncts sometime next week, said Douglas Ingersoll, the board’s executive director. The community college system may file a response to the petition, he said.

The chancellor of the community college system told faculty members in letters at least twice last month that union organizers had approached instructors at home and in the classroom while they were teaching. Chancellor Richard Gustafson wrote that some faculty members had been upset by the interactions, and he advised faculty members that they could call campus security if organizers refused to leave.

“Enough complaints were reported that the chancellor felt compelled to respond,” Reid said. “We fully support free speech and recognize the right of the union to conduct organizing activities, but we expect those activities won’t disrupt the academic environment or make people feel harassed.”

Asbury said the union instructed organizers not to disrupt class and believe they did not do so. Union officials have been unable to meet with the chancellor to discuss access to campus, leaving organizers to approach workers at home, he said.

Mary Lee Sargent, an adjunct history professor at NHTI and Lakes Region Community College, has been working to collect signatures from her colleagues. Sargent worked as a full-time community college teacher in Illinois and came to New Hampshire after retiring. She said she was shocked at the working conditions at the state’s community colleges.

“As independent teaching hands, we are completely at the mercy of the administrative hierarchy and have no say in the major decisions that affect our lives and our livelihoods,” Sargent said.

But Mary Mead, an adjunct who teaches visual arts at NHTI, said she chose to sign a contract with the community college system and does not want to pay a union to negotiate for her. She said she is satisfied with her salary and does not believe the system can afford to extend health care or pension benefits to adjuncts.

“We can take out services elsewhere,” Mead said. “Nobody is pulling my arm to make me work at CCSNH.”